Fitzgerald slams Newman Government
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Justice John Muir: “The thought occurred to me that I should make it plain my issue is not with Carmody the man.”Source: News Limited

TIM Carmody’s appointment as Chief Justice of Queensland has been compared to a “suburban GP being selected to lead a team of cardiac surgeons” through open heart surgery, in a scathing email written by retiring Court of Appeal judge Justice John Muir.

In an email to his former Nudgee College classmates, Justice Muir took aim at the organisers of a Nudgee College Old Boys Association business breakfast for inviting the Chief Justice, also an old boy, to speak at the August 14 event.

“Various analogies have been used by commentators attempting to explain the deficiencies in the Carmody appointment. I seem to recall one likening the appointment to a suburban GP being selected to lead a team of cardiac surgeons performing open heart surgery at Prince Charles Hospital,” Justice Muir wrote in the email, reported by the ABC last night.

Justice Muir later issued a clarification to his former classmates, adding: “The thought occurred to me that I should make it plain my issue is not with Carmody the man. I do not doubt he is perfectly affable socially and that he has many other good qualities.”

He said his issue was with what he perceived to be “his manifest unsuitability for the particular office he now holds”.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and Nudgee old boy Chief Magistrate Ray Rinaudo are also speaking at the breakfast and an association spokesman last night told The Courier-Mail Chief Justice Carmody remained a welcome guest.

Chief Justice Carmody has previously described his critics’ accusations as unfounded.

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